The Mission

He didn’t bring up Deidara after this except to say, “Don’t tell anyone what we spoke of. I still have yet to crack Deidara’s rough edge on his diamond heart and I’d rather be in a real relationship with him first before telling anyone of any progress I’ve made with him.”

“Okay, I won’t bring him up…but only if you take me out to the candy store sometime.”

“That’s fair… I’ll be sure to make it happen, Sasuke, don’t worry.”

I figured he was being serious enough so I didn’t tell our parents or anyone that night of Itachi’s failed attempt to win over Deidara, thinking it would be the last time I’d ever see him or hear of him being rejected by the loud, stubborn blonde.

I was wrong: over the course of his many, many failed attempts to win over Deidara, I would hear about it almost every day at the academy.

“Didya see how that Itachi guy got Ino’s brother so mad he almost blew him up?”

“No, way really?”

“Really, he did it on my way here too! Ino’s brother is super pretty, but too scary for me.”

“Yeah, you got that right! He’s the scariest person alive!”

I would also overhear conversations like this quite often:

“Sasuke’s brother must be super dumb or just crazy to keep talking to Ino’s brother. How many times does Ino’s brother almost have to kill the guy in public before he gets the hint?”

“I know right? I cannot believe my sister likes him—he’s so pathetic to keep going for an omega who hates him that much.”

“Right? Ugh, Ino’s brother would be better off with a real alpha who could handle him and his craziness without looking like a lovestruck chump like Sasuke’s brother.”

I would have stood up for my brother, but I couldn’t help to think they were right.

Seeing Itachi pursue Deidara wherever he went was pathetic as much as it was annoying to me back then. It was like he was only spending time with me and taking me places for the sole sake of trying to find Deidara so he could get rejected by him in public again.

I have seen far too many instances of Deidara rejecting my brother publicly…he never came by the compound so I never got to see it happen in private, but I have seen enough in public to know he had rejected my brother far too often for me to keep track of.

For example, Itachi did take me to the candy store like he promised…it wasn’t how I expected things to go because right away, when we were outside, he saw Deidara heading somewhere down the street…and greeted him.

“Deidara, how are you today?”

I knew the moment he froze he was mad, “…What the hell are you doing here, un?”

“Getting candy for Sasuke. What are you doing here?”

“None. Of. Your. Business.”

“I see…do you want to go get something from a tea shop perhaps? I’m sure Sasuke would like—”

“Not with you, un! Now if you don’t mind, I have somewhere to go.”

“That’s fine, we can walk together.”

Deidara hissed at him and I knew it was time to run yet my brother stood his ground, “Go. Away, un.”

“No.”

I believe everyone saw it coming because they cleared the area when Deidara attempted to choke him out on the street. Had I not begged my brother to leave, he wouldn’t have. He would have simply kept speaking to Deidara despite his open disdain of him.

Of course, this was one of many instances that ended in my having to stop him from provoking that ticking time bomb any further than he always did in public.

There was one time after I had gotten him away from Deidara and back one the path to our home to be on time for dinner. Deidara had thrown a kunai at him before hitting him with a sculpture that could have killed him had he not gotten out of the line of fire in time yet he still kept trying to speak him, to get him to agree to date him…it was pure madness and at that point, I had enough. He took a simple trip to the playground and made it miserable for all because he couldn’t take a ‘no’ for the life of him.

I tried to hide how annoyed I was back then, “Why do you keep making him mad all the time?”

“What do you mean by that?” he had the nerve to act stupid and that’s when I unleashed my frustration with him onto him, “You know what I mean, nii-san! You know Deidara hates it whenever you approach him in public, you know how people talk about him whenever these events happen, and you know how afraid people are of him now because of you. How many times does he have to almost blow you up before you get it? Deidara doesn’t like you—why can’t you move onto someone else who does like any other person would?”

Itachi didn’t give me an answer I could accept then or now, “He doesn’t hate me and he hasn’t rejected me yet. He’s putting up a wall; when I manage to crumble it down, he’ll be more than willing to be my mate.”

“…How is trying to blow you up more than once not him rejecting you?”

“Deidara is unique. He puts up a convincing tough guy front, but on the inside, he’s a scared little loner who wants to be loved by someone who won’t quit on him.”

“Aren’t you making him lonelier by getting people to be too afraid to go near him?”

He didn’t react much to it. Though he did tell me something I didn’t understand until I first learned of other alphas and betas being as interested in Naruto as I was, “You don’t know this now, but you will one day… We Uchiha alphas are a jealous type—we do not take anyone showing interest in our betas or omegas lightly. When the one you will one day love has someone else showing such interest, you will feel a desire to eliminate the competition while scaring away any potential or current unknown threats. For example, I provoke Deidara in public because I know he is beautiful with many who desire to mate him. I thought only once or twice would do to scare off the threats, but it seems there are still far too many who wish to mate him. As such, I have to scare them all whenever, wherever, and however I can.”

Back then it made no sense to me since I didn’t know what jealousy was like. I hadn’t met or heard of any other alpha or beta being interested in Naruto. All I knew was my brother’s explanation sounded crazy to me for a good reason, “But won’t it make Deidara hate you in the long run? He already hates you now; how do you know he won’t hate you more when he learns why you provoked him?”

“Perhaps…but you keep forgetting, he doesn’t hate me. He’s only putting up a front to appear tough and strong when he’s anything but.”

I thought he was being dumb, but I did get him to at least agree to one thing, “Can you please stop making him mad in front of me then? I don’t want Naruto to think that being by me will get him blown up!”

He laughed leaving me to almost yell at him for doing that, but then he said, “Ah, I understand! Sorry about that Sasuke—I won’t provoke him around you anymore unless if it is absolutely necessary.”

“…Fine.”

He agreed. It didn’t mean he kept his word: every time we spent time together in public, he would make Deidara mad regardless because every situation was a situation where such a thing was absolutely necessary. All he did was humiliate me in front of Naruto by acting like that…the damn jerk.

In the end, I couldn’t blame Deidara for hating him. All he did was provoke him on purpose to keep anyone else interested in him away from him all while living in some fairytale version of reality where the bombastic blonde didn’t hate him for some reason or another. If I were in his position, I’d hate him too.

Inoichi asks him something important then, “Do you remember anything strange happening between Deidara and Itachi before they left the village?”

“…I only remember one thing happening and that’s it.”

Naruto watches as he gets out the book containing the names of the arranged mates, “I think you already know this one, but Itachi wanted to mate Deidara. Unfortunately for him, Deidara wasn’t interested. My family had been mad when Itachi reported of his failure to get your son to be his mate—they said he had humiliated himself and our family in front of the entire clan.”

“Do you remember what he said to them? How did he act towards your parents and clan after humiliation?”

Sasuke paused, telling him while handing them the book. 

On the day he was supposed to mate Deidara, the clan had been ecstatic.

It was the first time he had ever confirmed to anyone he was going to mate Deidara. He had told our grandparents of it, who had told everyone else, and before we knew it, it became the celebration of the decade for our home.

Everything was extravagant that day—the food, the drinks, the decorations, the clothes people wore, the music, and the shrine itself even got a bit of a makeover. It was honestly a busy, stressful, yet oddly exciting time for everyone…who didn’t know how poorly received Itachi was by Deidara.

My brother always hid his failures from the clan—including those who worked in either law enforcement—by using his position as an ANBU to get records destroyed without anyone knowing any better. The constant explosions had him telling our clan: “Deidara only responds that way because when he gets flustered, he reacts with anger and explosions to hide his inner embarrassment. There’s no need to worry, such a thing will go away when we’re mated.”

I knew it was all a lie, but I had promised to keep it a secret or else he’d tell Naruto about Kiba’s ‘crush’ on him. I didn’t want to run such a risk, so I never said a word about it to anyone.

I did ask him before he headed out to get the hostile omega, “How did you get Deidara to agree to this?”

“I haven’t yet, but I have a foolproof plan to get him to arrive here tonight.”

“…Yeah, sure. Good luck with that.”

“Don’t underestimate me now; Deidara will be my mate, this much I can assure you.”

I didn’t believe him but I didn’t care either. As long as he didn’t get in the way of Naruto and I being together, I didn’t care.

Of course, when it didn’t pan out the way he wanted and he arrived there alone, the clan was severely disappointed in him for playing them like a fool.

“Itachi, where’s Deidara?” our father asked the moment he entered the compound without him by his side, “I thought you had managed to get that beauty to be yours! Did you two separate?”

“No father, his family doesn’t approve of arranged matings.”

“That’s nonsense! I know Inoichi and I know how their clan views mating.” father was mad because he could tell they had all been deceived and it was going to get worse from there on out, “What’s going on? Have you been lying to us about Deidara and your relationship with him? Did you really pull such a stunt to make us all look stupid for fun?”

Itachi didn’t answer him. All he did was sigh and rolls his eyes in response, making father angrier than before, “Answer me, dammit! What was all the deceit for?”

“…I thought he was ready to mate, but it seems he wasn’t. What do you more do you wish to hear from me? How much longer do you have to humiliate me?”

“Humiliate you? …That’s rich! You’re the one humiliating us by telling such lies about getting Deidara to agree to be your mate and having us throw on this huge celebration for you—”

“Deidara wouldn’t like any of this. He’s not one who likes the attention.”

“Don’t turn this back on me! Of course we were going to celebrate your mating the most beautiful omega our village will ever know! What else were you expecting of us? You’re an ANBU at such a young age and to have Deidara as a mate on top of it would have warranted such a celebration. We did nothing wrong here; you did by wasting our time and efforts like this.”

Itachi didn’t roll his eyes again, but he did remind him, “I never told you to throw such an extravagant event for me. You were the one being selfish here, not me.”

Father didn’t take that well either, “Ungrateful—how can you be so rude? At least apologize to everyone here for wasting their time to give you something they wanted to out of the goodness of their hearts!”

He never did. All he did was mutter, “I don’t have time for this.” and left the area.

After that, he began to distance himself from everyone, including father, mother, and me. He never stopped pursuing Deidara, though he did it away from me for once which was nice but…I missed spending some time with him…that is, until the massacre happened and Deidara went missing.

I do remember so clearly asking him, “Don’t you…don’t you care about what Deidara will think? Do you really believe he’ll want to mate you after this?”

Itachi had told me in response, “I do care deeply about what Deidara will think…though I know it won’t matter in the long run because we will be mated no matter what.”

I knew then what he meant: he wasn’t going to kill his favorite omega like he did with the clan.

He was going to try to kidnap him and force him in a mating.

I may not have liked Deidara, but I knew leaving him to such a fate was the cruelest thing anyone could do to a person. I turned around and tried to run, get out of the compound, and find the Yamanaka home so I could warn him to run.

My brother seemed to sense my motives before I could take more than three steps out of the area, taunting me one last time, “Poor Sasuke…couldn’t save the clan, so instead you try to save my omega from a fate I know he wants. How sad and pathetic—you’ll never be able to defeat me or keep Naruto safe in the future should you manage to get him to be yours. No, you’ll fail like you’re damned to do while I succeed in eliminating everything that stands in my way.”

Everything went black after that…the next morning, I learned of Deidara’s disappearance and came to my conclusion.

Itachi kidnapped him using the Sharingan and is keeping him under his control with it.

“Here are the arrangement records. You can find Itachi’s name line in there very easily since it’s the only one lacking the name of the intended mate and his parents.”

As Jiraiya flipped through them, Asuma commented then with a bit of relief in his eyes, “You truly believe Itachi kidnapped him?”

“I do.”

“And Deidara really was not here on the compound the night of the massacre?”

“Trust me, he wasn’t.” Sasuke then goes on to give his view of the situation, “I know there are far too many who believe he left willingly, but I know for fact he didn’t. Deidara hated my brother for good reason and going by what Itachi said, he fully intended to kidnap and mate him by force. I know my brother wouldn’t lie to me about it—he was too dead inside to lie any longer at that point.”

His eyes fell on Inoichi, finally getting the chance to give him the one thing he felt he deserved after all these years, “I’m sorry for the pain my brother’s actions brought your family in this village. I know your son is innocent and when I do kill Itachi someday, he will be free to come home and clear his name.”

While this did bring Inoichi comfort, it was hearing what Naruto said next that helped to clear the air more for them, “Whoa, Sasuke…that had to be horrible to live through. I’m sorry you went through so much alone—”

“You have nothing to be sorry about. You’re mine now; you are more than enough to make me feel complete in life.”

He blushed a bit mumbling, “How cheesy…um, anyway, I was wondering—are you related to a Shisui?”

“Shisui? Yeah, he was my cousin and Itachi’s best friend… He was the one who died under suspicious circumstances before he murdered my clan. There were people who suspected he killed Shisui and I’m inclined to believe them after everything.” Sasuke paused then, Sharingan almost coming out to this, “Did he do something to you back when he was alive, Naruto?”

“No, he never did, I never met the guy!”

“Then why bring him up?”

“Because I heard Deidara talking about him to your brother once! I didn’t know who it was at the time, but I thought it was strange because I didn’t think he could care about the death of a beta, or any beta in general.”

Everyone pauses in their movements as Naruto recalls what he had heard back then.

I remember Deidara being violent and scary, like a monster in the night or the demon in those horror stories. I always did my best to avoid him because he was always trying to kill Itachi in public and I was afraid of getting hit by the blast as a kid. There were a few times I almost did, but Deidara always saved me before I could get hurt.

He always looked me over to be sure I had no injuries and then he’d tell me to run away before moving the fight away from where I was. It’s why I can’t say he’s a bad guy despite being violent and scary.

One time when I was at the park at night—this was before I lived with Iruka sensei—I smelled Deidara’s scent in the air but he wasn’t angry for once… When he wasn’t angry, it smelled really good and comforting somehow, like how a mom would smell to their pups.

I followed the scent because I guess I needed the comfort after a bad day and I was hoping he’d be nice enough to give me some.

Instead, what I got was him waiting in the woods by the park.

Shortly after I got in the bushes, his scent flared into his angered one, but this time, it felt like I couldn’t breathe with how angry he was when he saw Itachi this time around, “Where the hell is Shisui, un?”

“Shisui? Didn’t you hear of his passing?”

“I know of his passing and my dad already talked about the rumor saying it was you who did it!” he growled and there seemed to be something different this time around…like he was wanting to kill him for real, “Did you do it, Uchiha, un? Did you really take away the only friend I ever had because you couldn’t stomach me spending time with a beta?”

I felt a lump in my throat and I wanted to run, but I was frozen in fear! I couldn’t move no matter how hard my brain tried force my body to and Itachi’s glare was off the charts, “Come now, don’t be like that.”

“I can be like this, un!” he almost shrieked, “This is my friend we’re talking about here, the only friend I’ve ever had in my lifetime! The only one I could fully trust—and now he’s gone under suspicious circumstances that you just happened to be there for, un? What a load of shit! I know better than to think you’re innocent in any of this—”

He grabbed him by his shoulders and kissed him.

I didn’t see it happen, but somewhere in this, he used his kunai to stab him in the side, making Itachi pull back from him and keep his distance, “Don’t you dare kiss me after everything, un… Don’t you ever speak to me, touch me, or walk in the same direction as me ever again unless if you want a kunai going through your jugular!”

“Deidara, there’s no need to be so irrational. You’re angry, I get it—”

“No, you don’t, un! If you did, you wouldn’t have kissed me just now!”

His scent calmed down and yet it didn’t feel any safer to approach him. He made a large clay bird with his jutsu and said so calmly, “I’m done with this, un… I’m so, so done with this! All you’ve done is isolate me, tried to control me, and made a whole village think I’m some violent psychopath when I’m not, un! I’m done with you, Uchiha! This is the last time I’ll ever see you again, un!”

I had never seen Itachi look like a wounded animal ready to strike before until then and it was honestly more terrifying than anything Deidara had ever done, “…What do you mean by this?”

“Wouldn’t you love to know?”

“I would, actually.”

He scoffed and got on the bird, “You’re not my father—I don’t need to tell you anything.”

Itachi was over by that bird faster than the speed of light and when he got there, he was holding onto his wrist tightly, “Tell me or I’ll mate you now.”

“Release my wrist or else I’ll take yours, un.”

“Don’t be unreasonable—either you tell me, or I find out using my Sharingan.”

It was incredibly silent and before I knew it, he used his kunai to pry his hand off his wrist, “…I am leaving the village for good to be an artist in another one. Shisui was my main reason for staying and trying to make it work, but now that he’s gone…I have no one, un.”

“What of your sister?”

“She’s coming with me. I won’t let her stay here and be ruined by this hellhole.”

“Like your parents would ever—”

“I’ve already discussed it with them, and they agreed to it, un. They’re going to come with us too so it will be like a fresh start for the entire family.”

As the bird began to ascend into the air, he told him, “I meant what I said: don’t come near me, speak to me, or walk my way ever again—I’m done with you for good, un.”

He left and Itachi didn’t chase after him or tried to argue anymore. All he did was stare at the sky while Deidara flew away from him.

“He left a bit after that, but I don’t think he ever saw me…or if he did, he didn’t care enough to say anything.”

Asuma immediately asks Inoichi, “Is it true? Were you really going to leave the village with Deidara and Ino after Shisui’s death?”

“No…I never planned that, Deidara never told me anything about wanting to move, let alone taking Ino with him!” Inoichi exclaimed in shock, “Maybe he did it to get Itachi to finally leave him alone for good or…or maybe there was someone in Suna he had fallen in love with and wanted to mate... I wouldn't know, I didn't even know he had a friend in this village until now!”

“Looks like we’ll have to try to find some more information on Deidara and Shisui’s relationship then…” Jiraiya remarks, “Did your son ever keep a diary or journal of sorts, Inoichi?”

“I think he did…” he paused and shook his head, “I don’t really know; we’d have to ask Ino that one. She was the closest one to him.”

“Looks like we have to find your daughter then…” Asuma replied to the news, and then told the boys, “Thanks for your help, guys. Go on and have a wonderful date today.”

He slipped them a wad of money from his own pocket and handed it to Sasuke, “Take your future mate somewhere nice, okay? You’ve both earned it after this.”

“Thanks…” Sasuke responds in shock while Naruto awes, “Whoa…that’s so much money! Thanks a lot, Asuma sensei! You’re so cool—are you sure you aren’t interested in dating Iruka? Kakashi sensei can be a bit of cheap ass and I think Iruka would be a lot happier with you.”

“Sorry kiddo, no can do. I already have my eye on someone else.” Asuma waves it off, “Now, let’s get going! We don’t have time to waste!”

Before the couple knew it, the men were gone and they were alone at the Uchiha compound.

Naruto’s first suggestion?

“…Ramen, Sasuke?”  

“You really need to eat more foods.”